The present invention relates to a bill-handling apparatus for receiving or discharging bills, particularly to a bill-receiving/discharging device for receiving or discharging bills by winding or rewinding a tape between wheels or reels.
In bill-handling apparatuses for receiving or discharging bills, some apparatuses are provided with bill-receiving/discharging devices for receiving bills by winding a tape and the bills on a wheel or discharging the bills by rewinding the tape on a reel. A bill-receiving/discharging device of the above configuration has an advantage that it is possible to realize a simple-structure, compact, and low-cost device. For example, JP-A-8-96191 discloses a device featuring auxiliary means for receiving/paying out bills in addition to a configuration in which a tape is wound on a wheel and a reel.
The above conventional example is of a system for receiving/discharging a bill in the longitudinal or longer-side direction thereof and the width of a roller for winding the bill as well as a tape for winding the bill is adapted to the size in the width or shorter-side direction of the bill. In this conventional art, the axial direction of a winding roller is the same as the shorter-side direction of the bill. Accordingly, even when the width of a tape is designed to be small, the tape width and the ends of a bill in the axial direction of the roller is in such a relation that the distances from a holding point of the bill by the tape to the bill ends are comparatively small. As a result, winding of the bill is hardly influenced by its folds or curl.
The above-described conventional system of receiving or discharging a bill in the longitudinal direction of the bill described above has a problem that the rate for the outer-periphery diameter of a wheel to increase is large and thereby, a device cannot be made compact. Therefore, a system of receiving bills in the shorter-side direction thereof has been considered and examined, and it is found to have an advantage that it is possible to reduce the increase of the diameter of a winding roller for the same number of bills and make a bill-receiving/discharging device as compared with the system of receiving bills in the longitudinal direction thereof. This is because that the length of a bill in its width direction is smaller than that in the longitudinal direction of the bill.
By the way, a bill-handling apparatus provided with such a bill-receiving/discharging device as described above tends to increase the number of bills and the number of denominations, which the apparatus can handle, the relation between a tape and bills becomes an issue in the bill-receiving/discharging device of receiving/discharging bills in the width direction thereof, because it handles large and small worthy bills in a mingled manner.
In the case of a system using one winding tape at the center, if providing a tape width for covering the longer side of a bill, which is in a direction perpendicular to the transfer direction of the bill as described in the above conventional art, an inertial load applied to rotation of a wheel for winding a tape and the bills becomes excessively large. Moreover, a system using two tapes or more in the axial direction of a wheel has a problem that the imbalance between the right and left sides of a bill when received occurs because of a deviation of the bill when received. Therefore, to make the structure compact while handling large and small worthy bills of various sorts mixed, a system of receiving bills in the shorter-side direction thereof, constructed to have a slender winding tape at the center, is most suitable for the structure of a bill-receiving/discharging device.
However, if the system is formed with a small-width tape, there is a problem that a corner of a bill is highly lifted due to folds of the bill when discharged, because the distance from a tape holding point to bill ends in the rotating-shaft direction of a wheel. When a so-called edge folding occurs, namely the bill corner is folded like a triangle, it is impossible to normally discharge the bill to the outside of an apparatus.
To solve the above problems, a bill-receiving/discharging device of the present invention is provided with a wheel for winding a tape together with a bill at the center in the width direction of a bill transfer route through which the bill is carried in its shorter-side direction and a reel for winding the tape let out from the wheel and has guide means for guiding the front end of the bill discharged together with the tape let out from the wheel in the direction of the carrying plane of the bill transfer route.
With the above configuration, even in a state that a bill corner is highly lifted due to folds of a bill, it is possible to hold down the lifting of the bill, because the guide means contacts the front end of the bill from the vicinity of the center of the bill in the carrying direction where a lift of the bill is small.
Moreover, it is effective that the guide means comprises first guide means movable when the outside diameter of the wheel is changed due to winding of the tape and fixed second guide means.
Furthermore, to solve the above other problem, a bill-handling apparatus of the invention is provided with a bill-handling port through which bills are received and paid out, a transfer route for carrying the bills from the bill-handling port in the shorter-side direction of the bills, a discriminating device for judging the bills carried through the transfer route, a storing cassette connected to the transfer route for storing the bills so that they can be paid out, and a bill-receiving/discharging device for temporarily storing the bills judged by the discriminating device, and the bill-receiving/discharging device comprises a wheel for winding a tape together with bills at the central portion of a transfer route through which the bills are carried in the shorter-side direction thereof, a reel for winding the tape let out from the wheel, and guide means extending in the width direction of the bill transfer route from the ends in the width direction of the tape to guide the front ends of the bills discharged together with the tape let out from the wheel in the direction of the bill transfer route.